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A former top Israeli nuclear expert is contending that Iran is a decade away from producing a nuclear weapon, saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making a fuss over Tehran’s program for his own political gain.

The assessment by Uzi Eilam, who for over 10 years served as director of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission, runs counter to Israeli and US estimations that Iran could create a nuclear weapon in a matter of months if it wants.

“The Iranian nuclear project will be active only in another 10 years,” Eilam told the Yedioth Ahronoth daily in excerpts from an interview published on Thursday. “I am not sure that Iran wants a bomb. It could be that they would be satisfied to be a threshold nuclear state to be a regional power and scare the neighbors.”

Eilam also accused Netanyahu of worrying the Israeli public with the specter of Iran for his own political machinations.

“Netanyahu is using the Iranian threat in order to achieve all kinds of political purposes,” he said but declined to speculate on what might be the goals of the prime minister’s strategy.

Official Jerusalem has railed against the diplomatic efforts and an interim deal signed in November. On Wednesday, Netanyahu told a group from the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces organization that despite the deal, Israel feared Tehran could still pursue a weapon.

“Iran today has thousands of centrifuges, thousands of kilograms of enriched uranium to make a bomb. A bad deal would let them keep those capacities. It’s better to have no deal than a bad deal,” he said, according to an FIDF statement.

Eilam, however, said there was cause for “optimism” in the interim deal, under which Iran agreed to reduce by half its stockpiles of 20% enriched uranium fuel.

A third round of talks between Iran and world powers is scheduled to begin on May 13.